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HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) tools for Schools and Work

I am sharing this information with all parents (primary and secondary) on a set of thinking tools that was supposed to be widely introduced and used in Malaysian schools. However, from my asking around, not many parents or kids seems to be fully aware of how they work except to know they kind of exist and they have to "copy them down". That is NOT HOW THE TOOLS ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK. You are supposed to make your own notes and mind maps using these tools.

These tools will help the children especially in subjects where there are a lot of facts, twists and turns, causes and effects etc... like Science, History, Geography, Kemahiran Hidup etc. There are elements of these tools in the textbooks and reference books but for these tools to be really effective, the children has to make their "own notes/maps" using them. They will be naturally guided and trained into HOTS when using them.

I have also found them useful in adult work especially in presenting ideas, concepts etc.

I guess this is one of the mind mapping tools which I saw my children used quite often during their younger school days taught by the school.

I do use the tool occasionally. It is one of the best ways to capture your thoughts and bring them to life in visual form beyond just note-taking. In fact, mind mapping can help you to become more creative to see your missing "link" and solve problems more effectively.

I guess this is one of the mind mapping tools which I saw my children used quite often during their younger school days taught by the school.

I do use the tool occasionally. It is one of the best ways to capture your thoughts and bring them to life in visual form beyond just note-taking. In fact, mind mapping can help you to become more creative to see your missing "link" and solve problems more effectively.

HTChong,

Were your children studying in Singaporean schools then ?

From what I was told the implementation of these tools above were haphazard and "messy" where instead of encouraging the children to read, learn and ask critical questions in order to produce their own visual maps. They took the shortcut and just copy down the ready made maps from the teacher. That defeats the purpose and approach altogether. This "spoon feeding" approach has rendered creative and critical thinking tools into mere visual notes instead of stimulating thinking as part of its production process.

And they were wondering why HOTS did not work the way they expected.

Seriously, the people who implements does not really understand the HOTS pedagogy approach. They just add on visual maps to the normal "spoon feeding" approach. Hence, it does not surprise me at all, why HOTS is still beyond the reach and comprehension of Malaysian students.

I am sharing this information with all parents (primary and secondary) on a set of thinking tools that was supposed to be widely introduced and used in Malaysian schools. However, from my asking around, not many parents or kids seems to be fully aware of how they work except to know they kind of exist and they have to "copy them down". That is NOT HOW THE TOOLS ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK. You are supposed to make your own notes and mind maps using these tools.

These tools will help the children especially in subjects where there are a lot of facts, twists and turns, causes and effects etc... like Science, History, Geography, Kemahiran Hidup etc. There are elements of these tools in the textbooks and reference books but for these tools to be really effective, the children has to make their "own notes/maps" using them. They will be naturally guided and trained into HOTS when using them.

I have also found them useful in adult work especially in presenting ideas, concepts etc.

Best of luck.

I beg to differ..

I always believe learning should have multiple methods and NONE of the method should be regarded as more superior than others, it depends very much on individual's learning habit, intelligence, the learning environment, etc.

The fact that it is being called higher order thinking skills is already wrong and misleading in the 1st place because I doubt other thinking skills are "lower level" compares to this HOTS... !!

The KEY in learning is to possess the intellectual curiosity of wanting to understand something, and it is up to individual to utilize his/her gifted talent and the available resources to explore the fun of learning. The method is always the last thing in this equation, in my opinion.

Let me give one example, Mathematics.
I think to learn math and to be good in math, the 1st prerequisite is one must have interest in this subject and then only one can learn how to be good in this subject. I found those "deviated methods" in math like the Olympiad Math is a shear waste of learning time. The method may help to find answer fast but the depth of the process in finding the answer is shallow and probably zero. This add no value in understanding math.

I guess this is one of the mind mapping tools which I saw my children used quite often during their younger school days taught by the school...

Allow me to just focus on two subjects - math and science.

I started going thru the Singapore exam papers a few years back, from Primary 5 until Sec 2 now, I also able to access the exam papers from UK and Australia. Btw, I was the product of Malaysian examinations and I am quite comfortable in math and science. This allow me to see the similarities and/or differences in exam emphasis of math and science of these countries.

I am in the opinion that Malaysia and Singapore have little difference in the exam emphasis. Students need to study hard, understand and to a great extent, remember/memorize what they understand in order to apply what they know in exams, the exam emphasis has very little to do with creativity or "out of the box" thinking. The only difference between these two countries is the language. I guess this explained for those who excel in PMR/SPM, they will have no problem to handle the demand of Singapore exams if their command of English is good.

I noticed at least 20-30% of the exam questions especially in science subject from UK/Australia do not require the students to memorize anything, the questions evaluate the depth of understanding and can be quite tricky. To me, this 20-30% of questions dictate who are the really intelligent ones.

I am not saying which country is better or which country is less good. There are many underlying factors which are outside the academic scope that lead to different emphasis in examination. Recently, I retaliated a post from one forumer here who commented that it is foolish to study History in MIT... !! To me, this is the best manifestation of how people look at things differently because of their upbringing and exposure... !!

...
Let me give one example, Mathematics.
I think to learn math and to be good in math, the 1st prerequisite is one must have interest in this subject and then only one can learn how to be good in this subject. I found those "deviated methods" in math like the Olympiad Math is a shear waste of learning time. The method may help to find answer fast but the depth of the process in finding the answer is shallow and probably zero. This add no value in understanding math.

You have finally reached the same conclusion albeit a few years later Better late than never Not only a waste of time BUT MONEY, loads of it too esp if you take part in all the 101 competitions. Now you know why I refused to let my children partake in any of those "fancy mathematics" back in the Lick Hung years.

With regards to these "HOTS" tools, well, like the word I used, they are merely TOOLS just like a knife. How good or effective will depend on the users. I am sharing here to inform that the tools that were supposed to be used in the Malaysian schools set by MOE. But it seems most are still not able to "optimise" their uses to be effective in schools.

They are aware but not using it optimally to get the "HOTS" values that they seek.

You have finally reached the same conclusion albeit a few years later ..... Now you know why I refused to let my children partake in any of those "fancy mathematics" back in the Lick Hung years.

I actually did not fancy all these short-cut maths but because my kid was asked by the school to participate, so I helped him to prepare for this olympiad thingy so that he won't come back empty handed... He got a silver for individual and a gold for team. However, l told him, that's all for this time and no more, I would rather see you playing computer games than learning this sort of no value maths..

CM, we are the rare minority on this olympiad thingy. I'm sure many are ecstatic, looking forward and trying hard to be part of this fancy math...

Unless you have a big heart to care for the majority of the 30 millions populations here, this kind of education survey statistics are not relevant to us who know what we want for our kids education.

The PISA is irrelevant to countries with big populations and wide diversity in education resources like China. There will be big diffrences in this survey result between schools in Shanghai and Yunan, for example. Similarly, small country state where education resources are essily accessible for all students like Singapor and countries in Scandinavia will always top the list in this kind of survey.

If the PISA survey can be localized to a small cluster of outstanding school, I firmly believe Chinese schools especially the Chinese independent schools in Penang and KL will skew the result of Malaysia PISA score to be among the top spots in this global survey.